Article Digest:
Granita is an easy and tasty treat for the summertime that doesn't require any special equipment. It can be made with virtually any sweet liquid - juice, diluted italian soda syrup, soft drinks, etc.

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Let cool. Stir in the fruit juice and lemon juice and pour into a chilled 13- by 9-inch metal baking dish. Place in the freezer and freeze, stirring every 30 minutes until the mixture is firm.

Allow sugar and water to cool to room temperature. Pour three cups of orange juice or other fruit juice into the cooled syrup.[IMG]

Pour mixture into 13&nbsp;x&nbsp;9 in. baking pan and place in freezer. I had to use an 8&nbsp;x8&nbsp; in. pan because all my 13&nbsp;x&nbsp;9 in. pans were in use. It takes about twice as long to freeze in an 8&nbsp;x&nbsp;8 in. pan.[IMG]

Every twenty minutes (forty if using an 8&nbsp;x&nbsp;8 in. pan), take the pan out and scrape the frozen mixture with a fork until all the frozen pieces are broken into small shavings and mixed well with the remaining liquid. Continue to freeze. Scrape every twenty minutes until no more liquid is in the granita.[IMG]

I like to serve the granita in a wine glass with some lemon zest and a sprig of mint on top.[IMG]

Is there something that can be substituted for the sugar in the
basic granita? Yes, there is sugar in the fruit, but that would
generally be acceptable. ( Besides you don't have to do fruit juice,
kyou could use something like coffee. )

I can use a sugar substitute like Splenda, but sugar doesn't just add sweetness, it decreases the freezing point and makes the mixture
thicker. I don't think Splenda would do that.

I'm not sure how substituting spleda will affect the freezing point, but if it doesn't lower it, they you can always add a little bit of vodka - just 1 Tbs. will make a difference to the texture without it being noticable in the final dessert.

Dinner with friends last Friday began with a glass of cucumber/Gerwertztraminer Granita and it was delicious. It actually tasted more like melon that cucumber.
The hostess made a simple syrup of 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Added 1 cup Gerwertztraminer white wine and the 'juice' of 1 cucumber. She seeded the cucumber and peeled it. You could probably put the cucumber in a blender after peeling and seeding and run it through a sieve if you don't have a juicer. It was a lovely refreshing beginning to a delicious meal.
You could let your imagination go wild with fresh berries and fruit that is in season now.

Great, great suggestions. I just made a version of granita and looked up a recipe afterwards. Processed frozen cranberries & frozen raspberries & poured red wine over. Guess what it lacked was the lemon and simple syrup.

I wish there was a way to print out the recipe (not the table) and comments in a Word doc...?

Hi, Thanks for the recipe, tried it yesterday .. it came out brilliant .. i tried it with a multivitamin juice i found at my local grocer .. it tastes like a fruit salad and it came out really good.. i added a tbsp of vodka as suggested here in comments .. dont know if it made a difference .. still i love vodka so why not